man > xkibitz(1)

XKIBITZ(1)                             General Commands Manual                            XKIBITZ(1)

NAME
       xkibitz - allow multiple people to interact in an xterm

SYNOPSIS
       xkibitz [ xkibitz-args ] [ program program-args...  ]

INTRODUCTION
       xkibitz  allows  users  in separate xterms to share one shell (or any program that runs in an
       xterm).  Uses include:

              •   A novice user can ask an expert user for help.  Using xkibitz, the expert can  see
                  what the user is doing, and offer advice or show how to do it right.

              •   By  running xkibitz and then starting a full-screen editor, people may carry out a
                  conversation, retaining the ability to scroll backwards, save the entire conversa‐
                  tion, or even edit it while in progress.

              •   People can team up on games, document editing, or other  cooperative  tasks  where
                  each person has strengths and weaknesses that complement one another.

              •   If  you want to have a large number of people do an on-line code walk-through, you
                  can sit two in front of each workstation, and then connect them all together while
                  you everyone looks at code together in the editor.

USAGE
       To start xkibitz, one user (the master) runs xkibitz with no arguments.

       xkibitz starts a new shell (or another program, if given on the command line).  The user  can
       interact  normally with the shell, or upon entering an escape (described when xkibitz starts)
       can add users to the interaction.

       To add users, enter "+ display" where display is the X display name.  If there is  no  ":X.Y"
       in  the display name, ":0.0" is assumed.  The master user must have permission to access each
       display.  Each display is assigned a tag - a small integer which can be used to reference the
       display.

       To show the current tags and displays, enter "=".

       To drop a display, enter "- tag" where tag is the display's tag according to the "=" command.

       To return to the shared shell, enter "return".  Then the keystrokes of all users  become  the
       input of the shell.  Similarly, all users receive the output from the shell.

       To  terminate  xkibitz  it  suffices to terminate the shell itself.  For example, if any user
       types ^D (and the shell accepts this to be EOF), the shell terminates followed by xkibitz.

       Normally, all characters are passed uninterpreted.  However, in the escape dialogue the  user
       talks  directly  to  the  xkibitz  interpreter.  Any Expect(1) or Tcl(3) commands may also be
       given.  Also, job control may be used while in the interpreter, to, for example,  suspend  or
       restart xkibitz.

       Various  processes  can  produce  various  effects.  For example, you can emulate a multi-way
       write(1) session with the command:

            xkibitz sleep 1000000

ARGUMENTS
       xkibitz understands a few special arguments which should appear before the program  name  (if
       given).   Each argument should be separated by whitespace.  If the arguments themselves takes
       arguments, these should also be separated by whitespace.

       -escape sets the escape character.  The default escape character is ^].

       -display adds a display much like the "+" command.  Multiple -display  flags  can  be  given.
       For example, to start up xkibitz with three additional displays:

            xkibitz -display mercury -display fox -display dragon:1.0


CAVEATS
       Due to limitations in both X and UNIX, resize propagation is weak.

       When the master user resizes the xterm, all the other xterms are logically resized.  Unfortu‐
       nately,  xkibitz  cannot  force  the physical xterm size to correspond with the logical xterm
       sizes.

       The other users are free to resize their xterm but their sizes are not propagated.  The  mas‐
       ter can check the logical sizes with the "=" command.

       Deducing  the  window size is a non-portable operation.  The code is known to work for recent
       versions of SunOS, AIX, Unicos, and HPUX.  Send back mods if you  add  support  for  anything
       else.

ENVIRONMENT
       The environment variable SHELL is used to determine and start a shell, if no other program is
       given on the command line.

       If the environment variable DISPLAY is defined, its value is used for the display name of the
       xkibitz master (the display with tag number 0). Otherwise this name remains empty.

       Additional  arguments  may  be  passed  to  new xterms through the environment variable XKIB‐
       ITZ_XTERM_ARGS.  For example, to create xterms with a scrollbar and a green pointer cursor:

            XKIBITZ_XTERM_ARGS="-sb -ms green"
            export XKIBITZ_XTERM_ARGS

       (this is for the Bourne shell - use whatever syntax is appropriate for your favorite  shell).
       Any  option can be given that is valid for the xterm command, with the exception of -display,
       -geometry and -S as those are set by xkibitz.

SEE ALSO
       Tcl(3), libexpect(3) kibitz(1)
       "Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive  Programs"  by  Don  Libes,
       O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.
       "kibitz  - Connecting Multiple Interactive Programs Together", by Don Libes, Software - Prac‐
       tice & Experience, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England, Vol. 23, No. 5, May, 1993.

AUTHOR
       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

                                           06 October 1994                                XKIBITZ(1)